12/02/2013

"There will be a lot of different formats at work here because everyone is separate, we will be telling their stories individually," the executive producer and creator of the comic series tells THR about the second half of season four.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from "Too Far Gone," The Walking Dead's season four midseason finale and the comics the series is based on.]

AMC's The Walking Dead delivered one of its most brutal episodes in its four-season run Sunday when the zombie drama killed off not one but two series regulars in its bloody midseason finale.

After waiting a season and a half for the confrontation between Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and The Governor (David Morrissey), the series based on Robert Kirkman's comics delivered in a major way when the eye-patched baddie drove his tank into the prison community after beheading Hershel (Scott Wilson).

Ultimately, The Governor paid the price for his savagery when Michonne (Danai Gurira) -- the woman he'd taken hostage just prior to the attack -- broke free and drove her katana sword into his chest. Bleeding out before likely turning into a walker, a stunned Lilly (Audrey Marie Anderson) -- "Brian's" new love interest -- turned her gun on her former lover and, as she does in the comics, ends his life.

The Hollywood Reporter caught up with executive producer Kirkman to discuss Hershel and The Governor's deaths and what's ahead when the series returns Feb. 9. Check out our postmortem interviews with Morrissey here, Wilson here and showrunner Scott M. Gimple here.

Heading into the midseason finale, the series had been criticized for effectively telling the same story -- Rick vs. The Governor. Why bring The Governor back for three episodes and stretch out his story? This felt like what we were waiting to see in the season-three finale.

If you look at the comics, The Governor attacked the prison many times and it was something that I wanted to show just how difficult it is to actually try and wage warfare in this world. While it was split over season three and season four, it does mirror the comic book. The Governor had an unsuccessful attempt on the prison and then had a much more successful attempt on the prison. That was the plan, to keep The Governor around for a little bit longer and show that the prison is able to withstand some kind of attack to show that it's a good place to live. But also to show that The Governor is still out there and he's not going to give up on this. We felt it was important for the life of the show to depict how dangerous things can get and how much of a threat The Governor actually poses and to give that story enough room to breathe. I heard the [complaint] that there was a bit of stalling at the start of season four, but people aren't really recognizing all of the character work that is going to pay off quite a bit in the back half of season four. It's an unfortunate thing because our seasons are split the way they are, people will often judge the first half of the season as one piece when it really is just half of the story.

The group has lost the prison. Where do they go from here?

It goes into a lot of interesting and new places, which is something The Walking Dead is always striving to do. The prison has fallen, there won't be any more stories there, and now our characters are out on their own. They've lost the prison, they've lost where they live and where they were building their lives, and they're also separated and have lost each other. They're out in the unknown trying to survive. We're going to be going into some very interesting places with all of these characters and seeing new sides to all of them as they figure out how to survive. Been a while since these people have been out on the road and out in the open; they're very different people at this point. The events in the upcoming episodes are going to change them that much more, which I think will make the show a lot cooler, more dangerous and more exciting.

We've seen the group split up on the road before after Hershel's farm was destroyed. How will their experiences be different this time?

I wouldn't expect them to be reunited as quickly as after Hershel's farm. They're going to endure a lot more. There's going to be a lot more that they're dealing with in the aftermath of the prison falling. I would expect these stories to be extremely different.

Gimple told us that the second half of the season will feature a different structure to it. Considering the group is divided, could we see stand-alone episodes similar to the two Governor-centric ones in the first half of season four?

Yes. We are going to be telling a lot of different stories. There will be a lot of different formats at work here because everyone is separate, we will be telling their stories individually. We will be playing with the format quite a bit. There will be different kind of episodes that will make up the back half of the season.

Hershel's time was finally up. After escaping deathin season two, surviving a leg amputation and becoming the council leader, why was the time right to kill him off now?

It just wasn't enough for the characters to lose the prison. We also wanted them to suffer a very tragic loss that propels them into where we wanted them to be in the back half of the season. Hershel really was the character that meant so much to every [other] character, so he ended up being the key choice to lose in this moment just because it affects everyone in the cast. It takes all the characters to interesting places. Losing that source of wisdom and advice and the fatherly nature he had with all the characters -- not just with Maggie [Lauren Cohan] and Beth [Emily Kinney] -- is traumatic to go along with the loss of the prison. It really just fit when we got down to it.

Why did The Governor opt to kill Hershel instead of Michonne, with whom he has a brutal history?

He probably had something a little bit worse planned for Michonne. He knew that he was going to be chopping this guy's head off and he probably didn't want Michonne's end to be as quick. It's entirely possible that he planned to cut her head off next. There's a lot of different things that changed in the outcome of what he was planning immediately after he did that. He also saw that Hershel was this voice of reason. Hershel was pretty much saying what Rick was saying to him back in that trailer when he had him prisoner: We can live together and make this work. Because of that, he saw that Hershel was this guy that was good and trying to come up with a peaceful solution. So taking him out of the picture, in his mind, would affect Rick in a jarring way, and that's what he was after.

Speaking of The Governor, we never saw the brutality from the comics -- when he savagely exacts his revenge on Michonne by torturing and raping her. What were the discussions like to skip over that this year?

This was discussed quite a bit in season three. It was decided that we didn't need to go there. Unfortunately, rape of your strong female character has kind of become a trope on cable television a lot more than it ever was when I did the story. It would be like we were trying to compete with other cable shows or doing something that other cable shows have done, so we tried to go in a different direction and do something more original that was better. That was the main reason we skipped over it in season three, and it wouldn't make sense to do something like that in season four the way we were telling stories.

Michonne and Lilly both are responsible for killing The Governor. What was the conversation like about who would ultimately do it after Lilly acted solo in the comics?

There has been so much going on between those characters. We had shown Michonne hunting The Governor down in the wake of Andrea's [Laurie Holden] death. While I thought it was very cool to not have a heroic moment and not have a satisfying death for The Governor, I like to torture the readers of the comic a little bit more than is acceptable when it comes to television viewers. I like the idea of this despicable guy just kind of dying and you don't get to feel good about a death, you're not going to feel like one of the characters had a win over him. It made more sense to give Michonne that moment because of everything that had happened, to give people their heroic moment and have her take the guy out. It was important to have her saving Rick in that moment. We never want to show Rick as being this action hero; he is this everyman, and I like the idea of there being a physical confrontation between Rick and The Governor. In an action movie, Rick would totally decimate that guy -- but that's not our show. We can show our hero getting one over on him and then having him actually face death in a very real way. We thought it was cool to have Michonne come in and stop that.

The series under Gimple is taking a remix approach to the comics. Rick escapes The Governor's story arc without losing his hand. Should Andrew Lincoln breathe easier now?

Andy would be all for it but you never know. It's entirely possible that we've closed the book on that issue right now but it could crop up in the future. It is the bane of my existence in the comics because I'm constantly having to rewrite scenes that you can't do with one hand. I'm not going to rule it out; it could happen at some point but it certainly hasn't happened yet.

Baby Judith's fate is unclear, despite an insane amount of blood in her car seat. Should we presume, like Rick and Carl, that she's dead?

You can presume; you'll never know until we know. We are keeping that as a mystery that will be revealed in the back half. That blood had to come from somewhere and I certainly wouldn't feel too comfortable about the status of that baby.

The prison battle in the comics is really brutal after Lilly, under The Governor's orders, kills Lori and Judith. Was that something you didn't want to depict on the series?

It's hard to answer this without spoiling something coming up. The story dictated that the scene be different. We'll see why in the back half of season four. But in planning season three, I thought the death of Lori [Sarah Wayne Callies] coming so unexpectedly and in the way that it happened was more brutal than what happened in the comic.

How will Carl (Chandler Riggs) handle the loss of his sister considering he had an itchy trigger finger when The Governor first arrived?

Both Rick and Carl both backed away from the harshness that they were entering into after the state of lost humanity they went into in season three. We came back from that and we opened season four with them not carrying guns and them both actively farming and having that be their focus. This event is a rude awakening for them. Carl is at a very interesting place when we pick up in the back half of the season. The events of the midseason finale are very present on his mind and it's something that will affect him for the duration of the series. There's big stuff that's going to come from this.

What did you think of The Walking Dead's midseason finale? Hit the comments below with what you're looking forward to seeing when the series returns Feb. 9 on AMC.

The showrunner breaks down season four's deadly midseason finale and previews what's to come when the AMC zombie drama returns in February: "They are moving into very uncharted emotional waters," he tells THR in our weekly postmortem.

[Warning: This story contains major spoilers from Sunday's "Too Far Gone" episode of The Walking Dead and the comic series it's based on.]

After all of season three and the first half of season four, Rick and the Governor finally came face-to-face in a bloody battle for the prison during Sunday's season four midseason finale.

In the episode, "Brian" (aka the Governor), takes Hershel (Scott Wilson) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) hostage and tells his group that Rick's (Andrew Lincoln) community were the ones responsible for torching Woodbury, killing his daughter and taking his eye. In a scene ripped straight from Robert Kirkman's comics, the Governor (David Morrissey) leads his group on an attack of the prison after attempts to coexist fail. Following Rick's dire plea for peace, the Governor accuses him of being a liar after the former sheriff tells him that people can change. It's a nod to the journey that both Rick and the Governor have gone on this season and one that doesn't sit well with the eye-patched baddie who savagely kills Hershel with Michonne's sword.

But the attack doesn't end there. Lilly (Audrey Marie Anderson) -- who kills the Governor in the comics -- brings Megan's (Meyrick Murphy) dead body to Brian and sees him off Hershel. After Rick and the Governor come to blows, Michonne stabs the brutal dictator, getting a helping hand at the end of the episode from Lilly and finally bringing down The Governor.

Was it always the plan to have the Governor die in season four? David Morrissey told us even he didn't know if he was coming back this year until he read the finale script. Why prolong his story to now instead of ending it last season?

This season was my approach from the start and the structure that I had in mind. It did have the Governor's fate sealed in this episode.

Was there any discussion about killing this character at the end of season three?

We threw the ball around on all possibilities last year and threw them around this year; it's part of the writers' room experience. I don't think that there was big push last year for the Governor story to end, and I certainly agree that there was more story I wanted to tell with the Governor. I do believe that this episode -- and both the story from the first five episodes and the Governor's two episodes after that -- was those stories crashing together. Those were also the endings to those individual stories. This episode was very much an ending for those two episodes -- "Live Bait" and "Dead Weight" -- for the Governor's story, not simply because he died but what he was trying to do at the prison and how everything went down. How he finally was defined to be a person who did what he did.

I hadn't heard the repetitive charge so much. We wanted to fulfill those two Governor stories, plus this last episode was very much about a man struggling with who he was going to be and finally being defined as who he was going to be by his actions. Rick was someone who was trying desperately to become another person as well, and when he extends that offer to the Governor -- which takes everything for him to do -- to essentially join him at the prison, that was the end of that story. Both those storylines featured all the characters fulfilling their stories and that took eight episodes.

It seemed as if nearly all of the Woodbury survivors were killed off this season. Was this course correcting from season three?

It wasn't so much course correcting as just part of the story this year and part of the intensity of the first five episodes and this last episode. A lot of those people survive -- we see them pull away on the bus -- so not everybody from Woodbury was killed. There was a significant portion of folks who did make it. The story didn't allow us to really dig into so many of the Woodbury people, but I wanted to dig in with as many characters as possible and tell all their stories. In this episode, we closed out a lot of those stories.

When you were planning the assault on the prison, did you always know you'd have a big comic book scene planned for it with the tank and the Governor's famous "Kill them all" line?

Oh yeah. The tank was something amazing from the comic that I wanted to see and knew others wanted to see. It meant a lot when I read it in the comic. That goes back to the first time we talked about -- taking this iconic moment from the comic and using it in the framework of the story we're telling. When the Governor drives that tank in, it's different than it was in the comic; it's very much closing up this guy's story. When he goes into the prison in this episode, it's an incredibly a self-destructive act. He's lost Megan, Lilly has seen him kill Hershel. Why does he drive that tank into the prison? Rick says, "Without the fences, the place is worthless." But the Governor has lost everything; so when he says that iconic line from comic -- "Kill them all!" -- he's just a force of destruction at that point. Everything he wanted the prison to be is over. And that very much fit into the story we were telling.

Why was the time right to say farewell to Hershel after he dodged death in season two? What went into the decision to kill him off after he'd become a vital member of the community?

From a story standpoint, they lost the prison, they lost their home, civilization and Hershel was the embodiment of a civilized and humanistic approach. This episode and where the story is turning is what happens when all that is taken away, especially for Rick. Hershel was the driving force beyond -- Carl and Judith -- to Rick's change when we join him at the beginning of the season. Everything he tried to achieve had been taken away from him over the first five episodes, and now he's lost the person who walked him through that. It's a very important part of the story that Hershel died; it isn't just shock death. We're going to see now with all these things taken away from Rick if he can come back from this. Moving into the next season and a half, the loss of Hershel will be felt and will be this driving element in Rick's character.

How will Hershel's death change Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Beth (Emily Kinney)?

Incredibly, of course. It helps define both of them into who they become and it affects them very deeply in this next half-season and beyond. Hershel's death, the loss of the prison, civilization and everything they built up -- this has all been taken away from them, and they are moving into very uncharted emotional waters.

Rick and Carl (Chandler Riggs) presume baby Judith is dead. There's a lot of blood in that car seat. Is she really dead?

There are a lot of walkers around there as well. It did not look good, and I don't want to say one way or another but what you see tells a story.

How will Rick handle his grief this time? We presume he won't see visions of Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) or give up his gun again.

This is an unthinkable amount of loss: Hershel, Judith and the prison. Of course it's going to affect him unbelievably, and it's a huge part of the story we're moving into. He's definitely not going to see visions of Lori. This is a different loss and will affect him differently. When he lost Lori, he was at a place surrounded by fences with brick buildings. One could argue that he had time to mourn or deal with it -- or not [deal with it] as he did. He's messed up physically from that fight with the Governor and now he's off in the world, that's where we left him. He's in a very different situation, where there's going to be some very direct demands upon him of survival.

The group was forced out of the prison and is on the road again. Where do they go from here?

I can't say. If you know the comic, there are a lot of differences from the comic that we do and a lot of differences that we have to do. There's going to be a lot of familiar stuff, brand-new stuff and remixed stuff. There are some things where you will totally know them and hopefully be expecting them, and then there will be stuff that's brand-new that you have no idea if it's coming but it will circle around to moments from the comic. It's very much like these eight. Comic fans once again will absolutely see a lot of iconic moments.

We saw a mysterious cabin and dead military members described as rapists and murderers. That's a big piece to Abraham's story. Will that come back into play?

That cabin in and of itself will not be seen again. That's part of the Governor's story, and that story is over.

Daryl (Norman Reedus) learned of Carol's (Melissa McBride) banishment. What can you say about her next appearance?

She's going to appear sooner or later, but I can't say much. There is a bit of time from when we saw Merle (Michael Rooker) on the roof in Atlanta and when he rejoined the story. It could be a bit but could be a long bit, but she will return at some point. We might have flying cars at that point, but she will return.

Will there be a time jump when season four resumes in February?

Not much! There's a lot that happens after the prison. Everyone seems pretty scattered. There's a lot to tell in the aftermath of what just happened.

We still don't know who was feeding the rats at the prison's fences. Is that something that's still on the table in the back half?

We will absolutely find out more about the rats and the person who seemed to dissect that rabbit that Tyreese (Chad Coleman) found in the tombs before the Governor showed up.

Season three moved at a breakneck pace, but season four was more of a slower, character exploration. Will the back half of season four have the same pacing as the first eight episodes?

The back half of the season has a wildly different structure to it. It's a very different set of stories, and it's very unlike the first half of the season. I can't say without giving stuff up, but it's very different. The same story priorities apply; there's a lot of character exploration but in a very different way. In some ways, the story moves quicker but in a really different manner. As soon as you see the first episode, you'll figure out why and how. Episode 10 [the second one in February] has a super unusual structure that I'm very excited for people to see. It's very different than the first half.

So flashbacks?

Kind of!

What did you think of The Walking Dead's midseason finale? Were you shocked to see Hershel and the Governor written out? Hit the comments with your thoughts. The Walking Dead returns Feb. 9 on AMC. Stay tuned to THR's The Live Feed for more Walking Dead coverage on Monday.

Every year, it seems like the start time for Black Friday gets earlier and the lines gets crazier. Thankfully, the folks over at Mezco are giving MTV Movies Blog readers a special chance to get two of their most sough-after items early. Walter White dons his gray exterminator suit from the "Hazard Pay" episode for […]

12/01/2013

The new "Fast and Furious" movie was scheduled to shoot key scenes with Paul Walker this week -- and on the heels of his death, several members of the cast and crew say they won't be returning to the set anytime soon ... TMZ has learned.Sources…

The comedy was co-created by Harmon and Adventure Time's Justin Roiland and follows a brilliant inventor (Rick), his dim grandson (Morty) and the adventures they share. The series bows Monday, Dec. 2, on Cartoon Network's late-night block.

The series features a voice cast including Sarah Chalke, Spencer Grammer, Harmon, Brandon Johnson, Chris Parnell (Morty's dad), Ryan Ridley, Roiland (who voices both title characters) and Kari Wahlgren and features the trademark elements that helped make Harmon's Community a cult favorite. Rick is a boozing, aggressive and outspoken grandfather, while Morty is the timid grandson reluctantly dragged along as his partner in crime. Think Back to the Future only if Doc was an alcoholic and Marty was a backbone-less teenager just discovering puberty.

"We're hoping this is like The Simpsons of Adult Swim," Roiland said in July at Comic-Con, noting that the series is a grounded family comedy mixed with a mad genius scientist. "We try to hit as many sci-fi movie types throughout the course of the season."

Watch the pilot episode, below, and hit the comments with your thoughts on the series. Will you watch?

It takes a strong woman to date a notorious prankster! For the latest installment of his prank-filled YouTube show, Roman Atwood decided to tell his girlfriend of five years that he'd cheated on her. She was devastated -- but she had a surprise for him, too. Watch the hidden-camera video below!

11/30/2013

The finale of Dancing with the Stars, Season 17 was a high-energy celebration, an episode featuring appearances by all 12 original contestants and one last, scored dance for the three finalists. As always, the show's last episode felt less like a competition and more like a party. Producers filled the two hours before announcing the winner with flashbacks and highlight packages, live performances (by Enrique Iglesias, Colbie Caillat and Lady Antebellum), and a chance for many of the fallen "stars" to take the dance floor one last time. There were tears. There was laughter. And in the end…

Her big break, however, came in 1966 when Gleason moved to Miami and resurrected his hit show The Honeymooners, expanding it to an hour and adding musical numbers.

Kean, a talented singer with a belting voice, starred on the show for five years as Ed Norton's beleaguered wife Trixie.

She often spoke about those years and her chance to appear on such a well-known program with Gleason, Wolpert said.

"One day she picked up the phone and he said, 'Are you doing anything right now?' and she said 'No' and he said come on down and be Trixie,'" Wolpert said of Gleason. "Two weeks later she was on the plane to Florida."

Born in Hartford, Conn., on April 10, 1923, Kean got into show business at an early age along with her sister, Betty, with the encouragement of her mother.

She appeared in a Broadway production of Early to Bed at age 16 and was eventually moved to Los Angeles and appeared in some films for MGM before forming a comedy act with her sister, who is Wolpert's mother. The all-female comedy team, a rarity at the time, played night clubs and rubbed shoulders with comedians like Milton Berle.

The sisterly duo also performed in a comedy called Ankles Aweigh on Broadway, Wolpert said.

After jumping to TV, Kean stayed on The Honeymooners for five years before leaving to pursue other avenues, including guest appearances, performing in Las Vegas and doing voice work. In 1977, she worked on the children's movie Pete's Dragon -- behind-the-scenes work that the usually glamorous actress didn't like because she didn't need to wear make-up, her niece said.

Last year, Kean put on a one-woman show that was a retrospective of her life's work and had plans to travel to London after Christmas with her niece. She was also preparing invitations for her annual Christmas party in the days before her death, Wolpert said.

"This was a really kicking 90-year-old. The number of friends that she had, the people who loved her ... she had a wonderful life and a wonderful career," she said.

"She was a glamour girl, but she also had a lot of substance."

In addition to Wolpert, Kean is survived by a stepson from her second marriage, Joseph Hecht Jr., and his family and Wolpert's husband and two children.

Her sister Betty Kean died in 1986. Her second husband, her manager Joe Hecht, died in 2006.

Showrunner Scott M. Gimple talks with THR about Rick vs. The Governor, round two: "It's a new story." Plus, how much will the AMC show follow the comics?

The third season of the zombie drama featured a dramatic story between Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and The Governor (David Morrissey), who, following repeated attempts to coexist, ultimately turned his gun on his own camp after killing Andrea (Laurie Holden) and Merele (Michael Rooker). The move marked a major departure from Robert Kirkman's comics, which serve as source material for the series, and prolonged The Governor's story that many thought would conclude in the third-season finale.

While season four has spent more time exploring The Governor's recent backstory and evolving characters including Rick, Carol (Melissa McBride) and Hershel (Scott Wilson), The Walking Dead has set up a midseason finale that largely seems to be telling the same Rick vs. The Governor story. Only this time, the beleaguered hero and eye-patched villain have more in common after returning to their respective leadership roles in a bid to protect their loved ones and communities.

"Any sort of Rick-Governor conflict is going to be a very different conflict -- if there is one," showrunner Scott M. Gimple tells The Hollywood Reporter. "If these two people [have a] showdown -- and God knows it certainly looks like that at the end of episode seven -- I would hope that they're two very different men who have gone through very different things."

Indeed they have: The Governor, following his deadly assault, attempted to start anew as "Brian," a peaceful guy who did everything in his power to not have to love again. Only all that changed when he met Megan, Lily and Tara and realized that love meant protecting his new family and becoming the man he once was, with the ability to kill those who endangered his group. Without the walls of Woodbury, The Governor has learned how difficult it is to exist in this world and has been keeping his brutal past under wraps and going by his real name: Brian.

Rick also attempted to turn his back on his leadership role with the prison group after taking in all the women and children remaining in Woodbury after Andrea's shocking death. That experience, however, didn't last long and he was thrust back into the position after a deadly flu outbreak, attacks on the prison and a mysterious person baiting walkers to the grounds by feeding them rats.

"One of them has tried to lay down his guns, tried to stop from being a leader, tried to pull his child back from the brutality of the world, tried to pull himself back from the brutality of the world and from the brutality of leadership," Gimple explains. "And we see him in the first episode [of season four] having achieved that, but it's all taken away from him bit by bit in those first five episodes. Carol tells him he can be a farmer but he can't just be a farmer."

"Rick is a different guy from the season-three finale and season-four premiere," he adds. "The Governor, from the beginning of [episode] 406 is very different guy. When these two guys meet, in some ways, they're meeting for the first time, and in some ways, it's a new story. The only way to achieve that is to tell a different story with those characters leading up to it."

Time will tell if Sunday's midseason finale will be the long-awaited bloody battle for the prison depicted in the comics -- during which Rick loses both his wife and young daughter. Should the AMC show opt to follow Kirkman's source material, it will be interesting to see if Brian's new love interest, Lily, is anything like her comic book namesake. During the battle in the comics, it was Lily who, under The Governor's orders, took aim at Lori and unbeknownst to her, killed a mother and her infant daughter. After The Governor kills Hershel, a distraught Lily winds up turning the gun on the psychopath and feeding him to walkers, putting an end to the deadly conflict. It's unclear if -- or how much -- the AMC adaption will follow the same story or if Morrissey's story will continue into the second half of season four considering he is signed on as a series regular. Then again, producers have always maintained that no one is safe on this show.

Hit the comments below with your thoughts on The Walking Dead's fourth season so far and come back soon for more from our interview with Gimple. In the meantime, check out a preview for the midseason finale, below. The Walking Dead's midseason finale airs on Sunday at 9 p.m. on AMC.

In another tweet, Michele revealed that "Cannonball," which will be made immediately available to those who preorder Louder beginning Dec. 10 on iTunes, was penned by songstress Sia Furler.

Michele has been doing double duty the past few weeks, prepping for the album's upcoming release and filming Glee. Earlier this month, the Spring Awakening grad tweeted about filming a music video: "SO EXCITED SHOOTING MY VERY FIRST MUSIC VIDEO TODAY FOR THE FIRST ALBUM SINGLE!" She also will release her first book, Brunette Ambition, in May 2014.

Walt Disney Studios’ Planes soared straight into the fourth-quarter disc-shopping frenzy the week ending Nov. 24 and immediately vaulted to the top of both national home video sales charts.

The film, a spinoff of Pixar’s Cars produced by Disney’s direct-to-video production arm, DisneyToon Studios, grossed a respectable $90 million in U.S. theaters and easily debuted at No. 1 on both the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks overall disc sales, DVD and Blu-ray Disc combined, as well as Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart.

The animated CGI feature bumped the previous week’s top-seller, Warner Bros.' Man of Steel, to No. 4 on the First Alert chart and No. 3 on the Blu-ray Disc sales chart.

Planes shared air space with two other high-profile new releases. Warner’s We’re the Millers, a comedy about a fake family created by a veteran pot dealer, bowed at No. 2 on both charts, selling about two-thirds as many copies its first week in stores as Planes. The film stars Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis and Emma Roberts and racked up an impressive domestic gross of $150.2 million.

Universal Studios’ 2 Guns bowed at No. 3 on First Alert and No. 4 on the Blu-ray Disc chart. The comic actioner, with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg as a DEA agent and a naval intelligence officer who go on the run after unsuccessfully attempting to infiltrate a drug cartel, generated $75.6 million in U.S. ticket sales.

Also new was The World’s End, from Universal Studios, a comedy about five aging pub crawlers who seek to re-create their epic drinking odyssey from 20 years ago. The film earned $26 million in theaters and debuted at No. 7 on both sales charts.

Of the four new releases, The World’s End generated the highest percentage of total sales from Blu-ray Disc (60 percent), followed by Planes (44 percent), 2 Guns (42 percent) and We’re the Millers (36 percent).

On Home Media Magazine’s video rental chart for the week, 20th Century Fox’s The Heat retained the No. 1 spot for the second consecutive week, followed by two other titles that just came off their 28-day holdback from key rental outlets Netflix and Redbox: 20th Century Fox’s The Internship at No. 2 and Warner’s The Conjuring at No. 3.

Warner’s Pacific Rim, No. 2 the prior week, slipped to No. 4, with Sony Pictures’ White House Down dropping two spots to round out the top five.

11/27/2013

Fox Entertainment will argue that a judge was wrong to see its interns as employees.

Sometime next year, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals will likely hand down a ruling that could determine the fate of internships in the entertainment and media sector.

On Tuesday, the appellate circuit agreed to review two cases -- one involving former interns on Fox Searchlight's Black Swan and the other involving former interns at publications owned by Hearst. (Because the disputes are ongoing, the 2nd Circuit had discretion on whether to grant the interlocutory appeals.)

It was a summary judgment on July 11 by U.S. District Judge William Pauley in the Fox case that had corporate America'a lawyers scrambling to review their internship programs. In the ruling, the judge determined that Searchlight was the "employer" of Alex Footman and Eric Glatt as that term is defined in the Fair Labor Standards Act. As a result, the company was on the hook for violating minimum wage and overtime laws. The judge also certified a class action over the internship programs of Fox Entertainment Group.

Fox appealed the ruling, calling the "employer" determination an issue of "first impression" for the appellate circuit, and pointed to other pending internship cases involving NBCUniversal, Warner Music, Sony Corporation of America, Gawker Media and elsewhere where judges have been asked to clarify employment standards over unpaid labor. The U.S. Labor Department has articulated six criteria for determining whether an internship might be unpaid -- such as whether an intern displaces regular employees -- but Fox argued it was merely guidance and "not an official statement of the DOL’s position on the standard for determining whether interns are employees."

Meanwhile, another ruling went the other way, and has also been challenged.

In May, U.S. District Judge Harold Baerrefused to certify a class action after determining that not enough commonality existed among some 3,000 fashion magazine interns at Hearst. Since each individual case offers little damage rewards, the practical effect of the ruling would make it tough to challenge internship programs.

In agreeing to hear both cases, the 2nd Circuit has given something that both sides will both like and dislike.

Although Fox will be thrilled to get another shot at addressing the legality of its internship programs, it isn't quite coming in its most preferable form. The entertainment giant had told the 2nd Circuit that its case shouldn't be consolidated with the Hearst one.

"The cases have no factual overlap and they raise distinct legal questions separate from the intern test," it said in papers filed last month. "The defendants in the two cases have separate and independent legal interests, and Fox does not consent to consolidation."

The 2nd Circuit didn't agree, ordering the two cases be heard in tandem. As a result, a panel of three appellate judges will soon consider the appropriate standard for determining whether an unpaid intern qualifies as an employee as well as the proper standard for FLSA certification.

Every year, it seems like the start time for Black Friday gets earlier and the lines gets crazier. Thankfully, the folks over at Mezco are giving MTV Movies Blog readers a special chance to get two of their most sough-after items early. Walter White dons his gray exterminator suit from the "Hazard Pay" episode for […]

It takes a strong woman to date a notorious prankster! For the latest installment of his prank-filled YouTube show, Roman Atwood decided to tell his girlfriend of five years that he'd cheated on her. She was devastated -- but she had a surprise for him, too. Watch the hidden-camera video below!

Britney Jean, which the singer has called her "most personal record yet," features the singles "Work Bitch" and "Perfume." The former has peaked at No. 12 on the Hot 100, while the latter debuted at No. 76 two weeks ago.

The album also includes contributions from will.i.am, T.I. and newly christened country star (and sister) Jamie Lynn Spears.

"Family Guy" writers did the unthinkable -- heartlessly killing off their lovable dog Brian, which would be sooo sad ... if Brian was a real dog and not just a cartoon drawing.Still pretty freakin' sad though.

From Nix, Complications tells the story of disillusioned suburban ER Dr. John Ellis (Jason O'Mara), whose life changes after he's involved in a gang shooting and is forced to explore how active a doctor can be in treating the cause of his patients' medical problems.

Riesgraf, coming off a successful run on TNT's caper Leverage and CBS' Surgeon General pilot, will play John Ellis' wife, Samantha Ellis, an attractive, intelligent lawyer who is trying her best to keep her family, her career and herself together after losing her daughter to cancer. Repped by UTA and Silver Lining Entertainment, she stars in Geek & Sundry's superhero series Caper and next stars in indie Freedom for Joe.

Szohr, repped by ICM Partners and Mosaic, has been cast as Gretchen, an ER nurse at Samaritan Hospital. Pretty, whip-smart with an ironic smile and penetrating eyes, she's a good nurse but a bit of a dark soul. When John Ellis comes to her for help in saving a patient -- which requires violating hospital policy and her professional ethics -- she agrees, revealing that she has more secrets than anyone knew.

The Don Buchwald & Assoc.-repped Grosse will play the skillful and dedicated physician Dan Brennan, a fellow doctor at Samaritan Hospital and the closest to being a friend to John Ellis.

Stamile plays Bridget, described as an excellent doctor who tends to take her frustration with life in the ER out on patients and colleagues. Irritated by John Ellis' overly sympathetic approach, she often takes him to task for coddling them, especially the ones she believes are abusing the ER. She is repped by Gersh and Schumacher Management.

The drama, from Fox Television Studios, will be written and executive produced by Nix, who wrapped seven seasons on Burn Notice at USA earlier this year.

Andrew J. West has boarded the AMC zombie drama and appears in the second half of the season, with an option to become a series regular in season five.

AMC's The Walking Dead is adding another character to its ranks.

After addingMichael Cudlitz, Josh McDermitt and Christian Serratos as iconic comic characters Abraham, Eugene and Rosita, respectively, the zombie drama will add another major player to its ranks. Greek alum Andrew J. West has boarded the series based on Robert Kirkman's comics, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Character details are being kept under wraps, but West will appear in the second half of The Walking Dead's fourth season and play Gareth, a character who does not appear in the long-running Image/Skybound series on which the AMC show is based. However, sources tell THR that while Gareth might not be playing someone from the comics, he is a remix of sorts of an unidentified character from the series. Gareth will have what sources say is a big presence and play an important character on the drama from showrunner Scott M. Gimple.

West will be credited as a guest star in season four with an option to be promoted to a series regular in the recently announced fifth season. The young actor, whose credits also include Suburgatory, Castle, Body of Proof, The Whole Truth and CSI, becomes the latest addition to the cast. This season, The Walking Dead addedLarry Gilliard Jr. (Bob) and promotedChad Coleman (Tyreese), Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha) and Emily Kinney (Beth) to series regulars as the show repopulated its ranks following the bloodbath of season three.

Like the debuts for Cudlitz, McDermitt and Serratos' characters, the exact episode in which West will make his first appearance is being kept close to the vest.

For his part, Gimple -- a longtime fan of the comics -- has taken a "remix" approach to Kirkman's source material. "In some ways, the things that divert from the comic this year have actually served being closer to the comic in some ways," the new showrunner told THR ahead of the fourth season premiere. "There's going to be some looping around to the comic and remixing. That's how I essentially look at it: It's a remix of the comic."

West is repped by ICM Partners and John Pierce at The Group. The Walking Dead has two more episodes left in the first half of its fourth season before its winter hiatus. The series will return for its second half in February.

Hit the comments below with your guesses on which character you think Gareth will be a "remix" of. The Walking Dead airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.

Michel Gondry hand-animates a conversation with Noam Chomsky.

Is there an odder couple onscreen this year than inveterate quirkmeister Michel Gondry and no-nonsense, plainspoken intellectual Noam Chomsky? After lending his time to innumerable docs and being the sole focus of more than a couple (including 1992's surprise hit Manufacturing Consent), Chomsky sat in 2010 for conversations with Gondry that have become Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?, an almost entirely hand-drawn, animated film that was clearly a labor of love for the director and has enough charm to reach a wider audience than his other recent docs.

Though Gondry shot a bit of 16mm footage during the talks, which we see from time to time, the interviews were captured largely in audio recordings, with all the accompanying imagery springing from Gondry's arsenal of colored Sharpies and the occasional still photo. Gondry introduces the film in voiceover, justifying his strange approach by fretting about the "manipulative" nature of traditional documentaries, where the effects of edits are "invisible." Supplying his own images, Gondry says, will make it impossible for viewers to mistake his subjective contributions for the professor's message.

The caveat is both unconvincing and unnecessary. If anything, flooding the viewer's senses with so much stimulation -- drawings that not only illustrate the topic being discussed, but flash and spiral and decorate this imagery without pause -- presents challenges to digesting dense ideas that aren't present in the standard talking-head nonfiction film. (One wonders what Chomsky, who has studied the way brains make sense of the world for so long, would say about this pedagogic strategy.)

But viewers likely to be in the audience will have come seeking the very thing Gondry seems apologetic about -- not an "objective," academic treatment of Chomsky's thinking on language, religion and popular democratic movements, but an engagement with those ideas that employs Gondry's peculiar sensibility. We get that, and how: Ever-curious, self-deprecating about occasions in which his fumbling English keeps him from making questions clear, Gondry works with sweet earnestness to understand his subject and convey that understanding to us.

On some topics, the pairing works beautifully. Unsurprisingly, this is especially true when Chomsky makes points by talking of fairy tales and magic transformations. When a child is told a story about a donkey that is turned into a stone by a spell, how does the child instinctively know that the stone is still in essence the donkey, not some unrelated object? That's a question made for Gondry's surrealism-friendly brain.

The conversation turns personal eventually, with Gondry extracting a few details from a man who's reluctant to speak about his relationship with his late wife or the things that bring him personal happiness. Perhaps the difficulty is that Chomsky truly doesn't believe he deserves this kind of individual spotlight -- that like the Ship of Theseus, which is repaired so often it eventually contains none of its original parts, the person we see onscreen is no more special than any in the sea of humans engaged in a history's long pursuit of knowledge and justice.

2:44 PM PT -- Good news for CB ... the judge just approved Brown's request ... he won't have to go to D.C.Chris Brown just asked the judge in his assault case in Washington D.C. to give him a pass and NOT make him appear Monday in court so he can…

Uh oh, looks like someone's tattoo is causing a bit of controversy!
One Direction's most mysterious member Zayn Malik visited his favorite tattoo parlor, Mark Mahoney's Shamrock Social Club, in El Lay last night and left with a brand spankin' new tattoo.
Unfortunately for Zayn, it looks like some people are not too happy with it's [...]

EA executive vice president says that the company's "Star Wars" games won't be based on movies, but larger franchise mythology.

The deal between the Walt Disney Company and Electronic Arts to produce Star Wars video games -- a deal announced a month after Disney closed Lucasfilm's own video game studio, LucasArts -- is a long-term one, according to EA CFO and executive vice president Blake Jorgensen, who told investors that the partnership will last at least ten years.

"We had a long relationship obviously with Lucas on the original Star Wars and when Disney took over Lucas, they really wanted to maintain a video game business around Star Wars," Jorgensen explained during an appearance at the UBS Global Technology Conference. "They came to us because of our partnership and they knew that we could help them develop really great games, and we struck what we believe is a fantastic deal which allows us to be able to build games in many different genres across multiple types of platforms over 10 years and we’ll leverage the strength of the Disney marketing associated with the Star Wars properties both in movies and other things that they may do over the timeframe."

The mention of "other things that they may do over the timeframe" may be important, as Jorgensen went to lengths to point out that the EA games will not be tied to the movies. "We’ve done movie games over the years and we wanted to make sure that we weren’t doing a movie game -- i.e., game based on the movie," he said. "The beauty of the Star Wars franchise is that it's so broad and so deep, you don’t have to do a movie game, you can do a game that's very focused on the world that's been created around Star Wars."

Later, he returned to that point, saying that EA planned to "align [the games] with that marketing power that Disney has so it will get aligned with timing around the movies, but it won’t necessarily be aligned with the movie." Instead, he said, the games will be "very much [based] around the historical types of games as in play plus new games that we’re inventing around their content, around the broad Star Wars content, and around some of the new assets that they may produce over time as well."

The first Star Wars game to be released by EA is expected to be Star Wars: Battlefront, due 2015.

11/21/2013

The sequel, opening in theaters around the globe this weekend, returns Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen; Vince Vaughn dramedy "Delivery Man" braves the fray, hoping to serve as counterprogramming.

Lionsgate looks to have a very merry holiday season as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire rolls out across the world this weekend, where it could cross $300 million in global ticket sales by Sunday.

In North America, the sequel has a shot at debuting to $175 million, marking the No. 2 opening of all time after TheAvengers ($207.4 million). However, anything over $155 million would be a stellar start. Catching Fire will be playing in 4,162 theaters domestically.

The Hunger Games, released in March 2012, debuted to $152.5 million -- the sixth-best showing of all time -- transforming SuzanneCollins' dystopian YA book series into an instant film franchise for Lionsgate and producers Nina Jacobson and JonKilik.

Overseas -- where it is expected to do far bigger business than the first film -- Catching Fire opens in 65 markets, including China. Major territories where it isn't debuting immediately include France, Italy and Japan. The movie should be boosted by its run in Imax theaters, both internationally and in North America.

In 2012, Hunger Games topped out at $408 million domestically and $283.2 million internationally for a global total of $691.2 million; Catching Fire is expected to do substantially more.

DreamWorks, which spent a relatively modest $22 million to make the movie, is hoping that Delivery Man serves as counterprogramming to Catching Fire, although negative reviews could hurt the film's prospects.

Delivery Man is pacing to open in the $10 million to $15 million range.

In New York and Los Angeles, older adults looking to steer clear of Catching Fire may opt to see Stephen Frears' critically acclaimed Philomena, starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan. The Weinstein Co. is opening the British drama in four theaters.

FX's biker drama has never shied away from a good death -- whether that's through a bullet to the head or a bloody fight on the streets of Charming. With season five starting off with the death of beloved member Opie, THR takes a look back at some of the show's most pivotal deaths. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Chris Brown was booted from his rehab program earlier this month for throwing a rock through his mom's car window ... TMZ has learned. We just got hold of the probation report in the Rihanna case, which outlines what happened during his 13 days in a…

The new trailer for "Muppets Most Wanted," the latest film from the felt troupe of performs gives us a better idea of what to expect when it hits theaters next year, in terms of story, cameos, and songs. "Muppets Most Wanted" is bringing back most of the elements that made 2011's "The Muppets" the group's […]